FILE PHOTO: Tokyo 2020 Olympics – Tennis – Women’s Singles – Round 1 – Ariake Tennis Park – Tokyo, Japan – July 24, 2021. Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine in action during her first round match against Leylah Fernandez of Canada REUTERS/Edgar Su
March 5, 2022
Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine, a week removed from fleeing her war-torn home country with her 15-year-old sister, continued a formidable performance by upsetting Italian fifth seed Jasmine Paolini 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Friday to reach the semifinals at the Open 6e Sens Metropole in Lyon, France.
Yastremska won 18 of 35 second-serve points (51.4 percent), broke her opponent’s serve five times in 10 tries and saved four of eight break points in the back-and-forth match. The 21-year-old led the second set 4-2, fell behind 5-4, then won the next two games before dominating the tiebreaker.
“With everything I’ve been through, I have to push myself and fight to the end,” Yastremska, who had 22 winners, said in her post-match interview. “That’s what I was thinking about in the moments it was pretty tight, or when I felt really tired or a bit stressed. … Every match I play here is nothing to lose. I’m giving everything I have.”
In the semifinals, Yastremska will face No. 2 seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania, the highest seed remaining. Cirstea handled Anna Bondar of Hungary 6-3, 6-3 in the quarters.
Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia rallied to upset No. 7 seed Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, and will meet Chinese eighth seed Shuai Zhang, who advanced when opponent Vitalia Diatchenko retired early in the first set.
Abierto GNP Seguros
Fifth-seeded Camila Osorio of Colombia shook off a slow start to upset top-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5) in the quarterfinals at Monterrey, Mexico.
Svitolina was unable to close out the match after leading 4-1 with two service breaks in the third set. Osorio advances to a semifinal matchup against sixth-seeded Nuria Parrizas Diaz, who ousted fourth-seeded Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 in an all-Spanish showdown.
On the other side of the bracket, Beatriz Haddad Maia nipped the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7), with the Brazilian saving three match points before prevailing. Haddad Maia’s semifinal foe will be either second-seeded Leylah Fernandez of Canada or China’s Qiang Wang, who contested the last quarterfinal late Friday night.
–Field Level Media
